The pattern
100 BPM · 4/4 · 32 step
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Step 16 | Beat 5 | Step 18 | Step 19 | Step 20 | Beat 6 | Step 22 | Step 23 | Step 24 | Beat 7 | Step 26 | Step 27 | Step 28 | Beat 8 | Step 30 | Step 31 | Step 32 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clave | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
The timeline of Cuban son and salsa, over two bars: the "3" side (1, the "and" of 2, 4) and the "2" side (2 and 3). All the other instruments (bass tumbao, piano montuno, congas, bongó, cáscara) are built to "stay in clave": reversing the direction for no reason sounds wrong to Cuban musicians. The 3 side contains the tresillo (3-3-2 eighths). Use it as a reference: copy it into the clave lane of any Latin pattern.